Graceful Exit
by Versus Hope
Summary: When another world’s Captain Carter appears on Cimmeria claiming to have information in the fight against the Goa’uld, her strange manner makes SG-1 suspicious, and one member of the team discovers she is not at all what she seems. AU, Mirror


TITLE: Graceful Exit

AUTHOR: Versus Hope

SPOILERS: Set in season 7. Specific spoilers for A Matter of Time, Fragile Balance, Grace, and Lost City Part 2. Ignore Heroes

CATEGORY: Alternate Universe, Mirror, Sam/Jack UST, Sam/Daniel (sort of)

RATING: PG

SUMMARY: When another world's Captain Carter appears on Cimmeria claiming to have information in the fight against the Goa'uld, her strange manner makes SG-1 suspicious, and one member of the team discovers she is not at all what she seems.

DISCLAIMER: The Stargate universe does not belong to me. The story here is written for entertainment purposes only, not for profit.

1.

"Unscheduled off-world activation!" The intercom booms to life on the heels of Stargate Command's warning klaxons.

"Close the iris, airman," General Hammond commands even as he descends to the control room from his office above. "Do we have a signal, yet?"

"No, sir. No IDC." The young lieutenant at the computer checks and rechecks his screens. "Wait a minute." He flicks a switch on the front console. "Sir, we're receiving a radio transmission."

"On speaker." The bluish glow of the Stargate colors Hammond's face through the observation window.

"I say again," an all too familiar female voice stretches across the galaxy through the open wormhole. "I am seeking General Hammond or Colonel O'Neill of Stargate Command. Please respond."

The General quickly considers the voice and recalls Major Carter's last known location—debriefing with scientists in the conference room off the SGC's primary lab—then he reaches for the microphone slowly, considering the possible identity of the speaker with the extra half-second he allows himself before responding. "This is General Hammond. Who exactly am I speaking with?"

"Sir," the voice evens out, "My name is Captain Samantha Carter. I've been traveling through alternate universes. Request permission to come to Stargate Command. I have intelligence that may be useful to this reality in the battle against the Goa'uld."

The General's jaw shifts, his eyes narrow. "Where are you, Captain?" he finally asks.

"Cimmeria, sir."

Hammond nods, shuts his eyes for a brief second; this could be a break. "I'll be sending a MALP."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Microphone down, the General calls to the lieutenant at the console. "Get Sgt. Siler and have him get a MALP ready, and then get me SG-1."

2.

The first thing Colonel Jack O'Neill notices about the blue-eyed blond on the computer screen is that her hair is longer than Carter's. Not much, just curling below her nape. Jack hardens his face and bites his lip. "We don't know if we can trust her," he tells himself as much as his team. All four of them are crowded around the monitor along with General Hammond.

"She's on Cimmeria, Colonel," Major Carter reminds Jack, drawing his eye as she checks the strap of her thigh holster. He quickly looks back to her face. "She's laid out her weapons so we can see them, and she's agreed to let us search her once we get there."

"And besides that," Daniels adds, his glance shifting from the Captain Carter on the screen to Jack, "On the occasions where we've previously run into our alternates, none of them worked for the Goa'uld."

"Ahh!" Jack raises a finger.

Daniel's brow furrows and quickly straightens. He clears his throat. "Oh, except for Teal'c's." He offers a half-smile to the former Jaffa, but Teal'c simply nods his understanding.

"I'm just saying I want everyone on their guard." A quick glance at Hammond and the General's confirming nod has Jack leading SG-1 down the spiral staircase toward the gateroom. O'Neill doesn't look behind to check his team's positions—he can feel them following.

"You have a go, Colonel," Hammond calls over the speaker.

Jack looks back at the control room before leaving, his eyes meeting Hammond's—a silent goodbye—and he takes the first step, leading SG-1 into the event horizon.

The bright day of Cimmeria greets them on the other side. The Captain Carter smiles when she sees him, a little hopeful and maybe a little desperate. The desperation gives him pause.

"Sir," the other Carter speaks softly, her hand lifting and flattening in salute.

Jack automatically returns the gesture. He notices that Teal'c barely gives her a glance, just shakes his head toward Jack after assessing her threat level and moving on to secure the area. _So not a Goa'uld, then,_ Jack observes.

"It's good to—" the Captain starts and stops, her gaze fixed to the open wormhole beyond Jack.

He peeks behind him to see what has her attention, but it's just Daniel.

"Daniel?" she whispers, and with the hoarse sound, Jack's eyes shoot back to her.

"Hi Sam," Daniel's voice is gentle as he moves toward them. Jack would've stepped away to let him closer, let him charm their potential ally, but Captain Carter grabs Jack's hand, the urgency in her fingers asking him not to move.

"It's good to see you." Her abrupt tone and her glance away would seem to belie her words, but the hand tight on Jack's offers a sincerity her voice lacks. Captain Carter clears her throat and brings her focus back to Jack. "Can we get this over with?" she whispers to the Colonel, and he wonders if she means the search necessary to permit her back to earth or the whole trip itself.

"Yeah." Jack lifts his chin. "We can do that." And when he pulls his hand from beneath the Captain's, he notices Carter's eyes on the tableau, her usually upturned lips thin and tight as if parched.

3.

Janet's examination of her takes less time than it once did, and too soon, Captain Carter is led from the isolation of her guest quarters to the conference room attached to General Hammond's office. Up the hall, turn right, down the elevator, then left, left again, her eyes roam as she walks, trying to find anything that would indicate this reality's distinctness. Nothing stands out on the trek, and she's unsure whether to feel relieved or guilty.

"Captain Carter." General Hammond stands to greet her as she enters the conference room, though SG-1 and Janet, who must have hustled ahead of her to share her test results, stay seated. His hand is warm and dry in hers.

"Sir." A brisk shake and she retrieves her digits, not offering her hand to anyone else around the table. She takes the seat between Hammond at the head of the table and Jack down its length. Usually visitors are situated on the other side of the table—beside Daniel—so the command structure is not separated during negotiations. She glances to Jack as she takes her seat. His head leans on his hand, two fingers lined up against his temple. The posture is casual. The look in his eyes is not. She nods her appreciation at the seating. A tilt of his head is her only acknowledgement.

"I'm sorry to be so abrupt, but it's my understanding that you have very little time in this universe before you will have to return home," Hammond leads. "You said you wished to share intelligence with us?"

"Yes, sir." She looks from her hands, her empty fingers, clasped together on the table to the warm eyes of the general to her right. "My reality," she clears her throat and looks back to her hands. "My home," she corrects, "just defeated Anubis' forces, via the discovery of an Ancient weapon." She can feel the interest in the room rise even as her voice falters at the thought of that last battle.

Daniel wiggles in his seat across the way, garnering her attention. "And where can we find this weapon?"

She raises her eyes, but she can't quite meet his. "There's an Ancient outpost in Antarctica, approximately 140 kilometers from McMurdo and 36 meters beneath the ice." She looks left and sees Jack, brown eyes inviting, drawing her in. "The power source is depleted." She clears her throat and shakes her head. "At least ours was. Jack found another ZPM when he downloaded the repository of the Ancients again."

"What? I did it again?" Jack lets go of his chin to gesture open-palmed.

"A ZPM?" Daniel interjects at the same time.

"Yes, you did it again," she answers Jack first. "We were desperate, and you, er he, did survive thanks to the Asgard." She bites her lip at the very name of the alien race. Her head turns towards Daniel, but her gaze stays on the table to address his question. "A ZPM is, um…" she clears her throat, self-consciousness flooding her at her reaction to him, the rawness of her emotions. She must be silent for too long. Major Carter finishes her answer for her:

"According to Dr. McKay, a Zero Point Module is an Ancient energy source that collects and stores power in subspace, potentially compacting a limitless amount of energy in a finite container. It's all theoretical, though," Major Carter continues, "McKay had based the idea on some information one of the Russian teams had found off-world when they were still running their own program."

"Well, Rodney was right about Zero Point Energy and the Ancient's use of it." Captain Carter glances up at the Major, to Janet beside her and back again. It isn't as difficult as she imagined it would be to look into a copy of her own eyes. "The only problem is, a ZPM will eventually run out of power, once enough time has passed."

"How much time?" Hammond asks.

"We theorize the one we have at the Ancient outpost now is around 13,000 years old," Captain Carter responds, "but was likely in constant, though minimal use for at least 3,000 years before it automatically shut down to conserve its last reserves."

Jack redirects her attention back to him. "That's a lot of time."

"Indeed," Captain Carter speaks before thinking. She lowers her head and clears her throat while chuffs escape across the room.

"Don't you need to raise an eyebrow and bow your head a little when you say that?" Jack asks.

When she looks up again, he's smiling at her, more sweetly, less sarcastically than usual. She smiles back. His sharp brown eyes and soft silver hair are just like that of the Jack she's known these last several years. But it's not him. Still, he's as steadying a force as her Jack had been. "The ZPM still had enough power to activate the weapon, and then later it was able to open a wormhole to the Pegasus Galaxy before it was also depleted. I can give you the coordinates of its current location, but you'll need a cargo ship and hazmat suits to get there," she directs her words to Jack.

"Why go to the Pegasus Galaxy, Sam?" Daniel's voice is more tense than she's used to, frustrated. Is he angry with her? "Or should we call you Samantha?"

"Please call me Captain Carter," the words come through clenched teeth. A quick look into Daniel's eyes and she can see his hurt, can't hold his gaze. She looks back to her naked fingers, to the one with the white ring at its base, shrugs as nonchalantly as she can. "The confusion," she explains, trying to keep the line of her mouth straight, "two women, one name."

The silence in the room holds awkwardly for long moments. Captain Carter is the one to break it, "Atlantis is in the Pegasus Galaxy." She pauses, considering the breadth of information she could tell them in this moment and the length of time it would take to explain everything, and how all the while a Daniel Jackson's gentle but unknowing eyes would watch her throughout the explanation. Abruptly, she pushes back from the table, preparing to stand, to leave—to run. "Look, this debriefing is really unnecessary. I have several crystals worth of information detailing the weapon as well as all our data on the Atlantis expedition and a potential location for another ZPM and hoards of other things. They can tell you more than I possibly could in the amount of time I have left here. Permission to be escorted back to guest quarters, sir?" she asks Hammond.

"Granted," he deems after a pause at her outburst.

Jack stands beside her. He doesn't follow her yet, but it's only a matter of time.

4.

Jack watches Captain Carter flee from the room. Once the blur of blond and green is gone, his eyes move to settle on Daniel's bewildered face.

"Was it something I said?" the archaeologist asks, arms raised in supplication.

"I don't know, Daniel," Fraiser answers. "She was agitated in the infirmary as well."

Teal'c rises from his seat beside O'Neill. "Captain Carter was quite anxious to complete this meeting, but she was more inclined to remove herself from Daniel Jackson's presence."

Carter nods her agreement, and Hammond looks to him. "Colonel?"

"She was OK on the planet before Daniel stepped over."

"But I didn't do anything," Daniel protests, still seated.

"I don't think you would have had time," Carter points out. "She's not from this universe. Her reaction to you probably has to do with something between her and her own Daniel."

The General shifts his jaw as he listens and deliberates. "I'm certain we're not seeing the whole picture here, but does anyone actually see Captain Carter as a threat to the SGC?"

Several heads shake, every one but Daniel's, which is still with shock.

"We can look over the information crystals to be certain, sir," their own Carter offers, "but it would be very difficult to sabotage the kind of data she's talking about, at least in the form she's given us."

Hammond nods. "Study her information in case we need to ask her any questions before she has to leave. Dr. Fraiser," he turns to the good doctor, "What is your evaluation of her mental state?"

Janet purses her lips and widens her eyes. "Well, sir, Captain Carter seems a very capable person, and other than her reaction to Daniel, her responses seem similar enough to what I would expect from Major Carter that I'm inclined to believe the two women are very much alike. Having said that, I must also admit that a half an hour session with someone I just met is hardly a good indicator of mental status. Perhaps if someone she trusts were to speak to her, we could get a better idea of her motivations in coming here," Fraiser concludes and promptly looks to Jack.

Her gaze is followed by four more sets of eyes.

"What?" Jack meets each stare in turn.

"You're the obvious choice, sir," Carter insists, expression nearly blank but for the slight tension showing around her eyes.

He raises his eyebrows. "Why?" he draws the word out, directing as innocent a face as he thinks he can get away with to Carter.

"Come on, you're going to tell me you didn't notice her reaction to you?" Daniel stands just to lean across the table. "Her affection for was as obvious as her dislike for me."

"Colonel, I'm inclined to agree," Hammond speaks before Jack can respond. "I want you to talk to Captain Carter. See if she's hiding anything we need to know."

O'Neill clears his throat. "Yes, sir. And since I have a mission already," he tries to keep the irony out of his tone, "permission to send Teal'c back to Cimmeria?"

"For what purpose, Colonel?"

"Gather intel on Captain Carter, sir. To see if she had a camp, maybe try to tell if she observed us on previous occasions before contacting us." Jack shrugs his shoulders in forced casualness, "She is a Carter," he says with reserved affection, keeping his eyes on Hammond though he wants to turn and see if his Carter is at all softened by either the inherent compliment or his suspicion of the other woman.

Hammond narrows his eyes, gives a short nod. "Do it," he orders, adjourning to his office and closing the door.

Dr. Fraiser gathers her new file on Captain Carter. She pats Daniel on the shoulder on her way out. Carter likewise gives the archaeologist a smile before hopping out of the room. She doesn't glance at Jack, who sighs and looks to Teal'c.

"T," O'Neill jerks his chin in the general direction of the Jaffa, "find Captain Carter's camp. It won't be near the Stargate or the settlement. It'll be somewhere isolated. Somewhere with a good view and a good tactical position," he instructs, completely unnecessarily. He shifts his feet, about to turn away, but he hesitates and speaks almost before he knows he's going to, "Whatever you find, don't say anything over the radio. I don't want anybody jumping to conclusions. Bring it directly to me, and I'll tell General Hammond," he concludes, forcing a casual tone but without knowing why he's hiding his uneasiness.

Teal'c pauses but then simply tucks his chin and exits, leaving Jack alone with Daniel. Jack bites his lip, quickly tightens and relaxes his face. He moves toward the door when Daniel doesn't say anything, hoping to escape before he does.

"Why?" Daniel asks before Jack can make his getaway.

O'Neill squints as he forms two fast and loose fists, stuffing his hands in his pockets, and turning to lean against the doorframe exiting into the hall. "What?" Jack asks, studying the back of his friend's head as Daniel's bent over the table and staring at his hands the way Captain Carter had been. He can't see it to be certain, but Jack doubts that Daniel's really looking at his fingers, unlike Captain Carter whose gaze kept coming back to her left ring finger, empty but for a stain of white ringed at its base.

"What did I do to her that could make her hate me so much?" Daniel's voice is tight and pinched. "I mean, this is still Sam. How could I—"

"I don't think you did anything to her," Jack interrupts, pushing off from the doorframe. "I don't even think her Daniel did anything to her." He looks away from his friend's still form, trying not to imagine his own Carter's smile as he does, trying not to consider what could have been…under other circumstances. "I think her Daniel died."

His Daniel turns. The pull of his wounded eyes brings Jack's gaze back to his face. "What?" Daniel shakes his head.

"People react to grief in different ways," Jack continues. "She was surprised, stunned, to see you back on the planet. Maybe her Daniel really died after Kelowna. Maybe he didn't descend—I don't know." He bites his lip. Again Jack's memory is drawn to that shock of white on Captain Carter's ring finger, and this time, to the unbroken tan of Major Carter's hands. Jack rubs his face in one hand. His breath nearly catches to speak his suspicion aloud: "I think she was your wife."

"_My _Wife?" Daniel looks back to him, emphasizing his use of the possessive. His eyes, searching Jack's, speak to the cause of his incredulity. His expression gentles on Jack's face, both men just looking at each other, eyes full and mouths still. "You're a good friend, Jack," Daniel settles the silence. "So is Sam. I love her like a sister, but I couldn't see myself married to her."

Jack nods, furrows his brow and looks away, trying not to feel relief swell his veins and travel his body. "Thank you, Daniel," the words are a whisper. "You're a good friend, too."

Daniel steps toward him, cups his palm around Jack's bicep. "Come on," he encourages. "We've got work to do."

5.

She's alone in the room for almost exactly eight minutes when Jack's knock sounds on the door. The rhythmic _shave and a haircut_ darts through her bubble of silence and scatters her thoughts.

"Come in," she raises her voice.

"Hey," Jack's head peeks from behind the door.

She lifts her chin, inviting him to enter completely, "Jack," she says once he's inside, "what brings you to my door?"

The Colonel grabs a chair and sets it in front of her position on the bed. As he sits he asks, maybe half teasingly, "Oh, so it's 'Jack,' but I have to call you 'Captain Carter?'"

She clears her throat, "I misspoke. Call me Grace."

"Grace?" His tone asks his question.

"It's the name I've gone by for the last five years. It's my middle name." She settles her left hand in her right, digits automatically stretching around her ring finger. Like before in the conference room, she startles to feel bare skin beneath her fingertips. Her eyes check the anomaly before she can remember. When she looks back up to Jack, his eyes are on her hands. A long beat later, he looks back into her eyes. She waits for him to say something. She doesn't realize that she wanted him to until he changes the subject.

"Carter's looking over the crystals you gave us. She said she might need a little time to um…" he laces his fingers together in demonstration.

"Interface them with the SGC's computer system?" Captain Grace Carter leads.

"Right." He frees his fingers to hold up a single digit ceding her explanation.

She nods and looks away. "She should talk to Rodney. He's incredible with integrating alien technologies with earth-based systems, just" she squints and shakes her head, "don't tell him I said so."

"Ah," Jack lifts his eyebrows. "so some egos stretch across realities?"

"That's one way of putting it." Grace Carter smiles, but after a moment she shakes her head. "Rodney really is a genius, though, and he's not as bad as he used to be. He's actually a part of the first contact team in Atlantis, if you can believe that."

Jack squints his eyes, but at the same time, lifts his lips. "Some people will surprise you that way," he says finally, seeming to look right through her.

She looks away. "So why are you here?" she tries to redirect.

"Why are you?" His stare is direct but not accusing, not really. Not yet anyway.

The silence that follows is unassuming despite the questions between them. Captain Grace Carter drops her gaze first, her eyes heavy with fatigue. _What _am I _doing _here_? _she questions, even though, deep down, she knows there is no other way.

Unconsciously, she reaches a hand toward Jack. He accepts it, squeezing her digits. She tugs on it, just a little, and without another word, Jack scoots from the chair across from her onto the bed beside her, never fully standing. She leans against him before he can settle far away. She feels him gasp with a slight movement of his chest, though she doesn't hear the drawn breath. She stills for a moment, just realizing the liberty she's taking by seeking comfort from him. She waits for either rejection or permission. He gives the latter with a light hand on her back. She stiffens at his tentative touch, only now considering how cruel she is for acting this way. It's odd, but she can forget sometimes how she and Sam Carter look and probably feel exactly alike. When Grace tries to move away though, Jack tightens his grip on her, keeping her close. She settles into him slowly, more cautious of his feelings this time. He takes her left hand in his, rubs his thumb along the base of her ring finger. It's a question, though he must have already put most of the pieces together by now, or at least enough of them to be able to answer the query himself. She bites her lip and grips his hand with hers.

"Tell me or don't," he invites, stroking his other hand down her back, acting more the brother to her than Mark ever was. "I won't let go." He kisses her hair and smoothes it down. "Is he dead?"

She sniffs and chuffs, "As good as."

"Ascended?" Jack says the word without the venom she's used to hearing from versions of this man.

"No," Grace shakes her head. "My Daniel didn't—" she sucks in a breath. She didn't mean to say his name.

"Then why?" he sounds through the silence.

"Entropy."

He pauses mid-stroke before continuing down. "Eh?"

She smiles and straightens, moving away. "My husband and I weren't from the same universe. I was a refugee from an earth that," she stutters, then skips ahead, "Well, let's just say we didn't live in my reality. We lived in his world, and that world's Sam…" She trails off, considering again what to say and what not to say.

"Was she dead?"

"No!" The word comes out startled. "I mean, I don't know what happened to the original Sam, but there was…" she literally bites her lip.

"There was a Sam there already," Jack concludes, "which is why you became Grace."

"I—" she furrows her brow. "Well, yes actually that is true."

"So if there were two Sam Carters, then why didn't she leave? Why did it have to be you?"

She shrugs. "Well, the entropy would have affected me regardless of whether or not she was there."

"Why?" Jack's question is natural, unassuming. She doesn't think before she answers:

"I was the one from the alternate universe," she blurts and quickly shuts her mouth.

"But she wasn't?" Jack intuits. "So if she wasn't the real Sam," the Colonel continues, "And she wasn't an alternate Sam, then she must have been—a clone?" he asks through a heavy squint.

"So you've met Loki?" Grace asks very carefully. She hadn't meant to lead him this far on his fact finding mission.

"Oh, yes, and what fun it was," he infuses such sarcasm into his words as only Jack can.

"Your mini-me?" she feels him out, inquiring of his clone.

"Back in high school again if you can believe that."

She hums, "I've seen it actually."

Jack huffs, nearly rolling his eyes before his expression evens out and his face grows serious. "So your original earth…"

Standing quickly, she hurries to the other side of the room to gain some distance from the conversation. "Can we not talk about that?" she asks, facing the wall.

"You know as well as I do they're going to want to know," Jack speaks matter-of-factly. She knows without looking he's probably leaning onto his knees and scratching the back of his head as he speaks. "If they think you're unwilling to talk about your earth, they'll question whether you're telling the truth on this weapon, and we really can't afford to move slowly on this."

"But I _am_ unwilling to talk about my earth," she points out and leans onto the wall with one hand.

"Yeah, I got that," Jack acknowledges, and she can hear him standing up. "But I don't think it's for the reasons they'd imagine. If you can give me something," he prods in a very un-Jack-like manner.

She sees her thumb stroking the concrete of the wall as if to capture the feel of it for posterity. She stops with a blink and shakes her head, "Jack—"

"I'm not asking for state secrets here, Carter. Just something that will let them know you're not trying to screw this earth over," Jack insists, almost pleads really. Her ears triangulate his position by the bed, but she can practically hear him straining with effort to keep from coming closer. She can nearly taste his struggle to remain apart. It's a familiar flavor to her, but not one she's sampled recently—not since she found a second home through the mirror. Involuntarily, her thumb strokes the wall again, calming her by its texture, its very existence.

"I thought it had been destroyed—that it had all been destroyed." Her hand grips into the wall but finds no purchase. "I thought my earth had been sucked into a black hole while I was off-world."

"But it wasn't?" Jack gives into temptation and shuffles towards her a few feet. She tries to hear a distinctness in his step, to remember…something, but the past is too blurred to register any subtle changes.

She smoothes her fingers against the flat surface again. "No, it wasn't destroyed," her words are too soft and too hoarse, so she swallows and tries again, "It wasn't destroyed, but I didn't know that for a long time." Jack's clothing rustles behind her, getting closer with each shift. Soon he might touch her again. She stiffens and blurts: "I was alone and trying to track down the Tok'ra when I found a mirror on a Goa'uld-controlled planet." Jack quits moving immediately, maybe recognizing an old familiar remnant in her posture, maybe hearing a warning in a voice he used to know. She talks fast, "the planet is designated P47-519 in other universes. I used the mirror, a quantum mirror like the one on P3R-233," she specifies, "to escape a minor Goa'uld in Cronus' territory."

They stand there for perhaps a minute not speaking. His silence is too complete, almost as if even soundwaves don't dare bounce off him but instead become absorbed by his will. The absoluteness of the quiet nearly tricks her into facing him. She shuts her eyes because she knows she would confess too much to the gentleness Jack carries in his expression for her. "I didn't see any point in going back to my home universe after that," she can't help but say anyway. "There was no one else left. They were all dead." She shakes her head. "Or at least, that's what I thought."

Jack exhales quickly and softly, breaking his silence. Grace nearly sighs in response until Jack asks: "How did you find out your earth survived?"

She looks back to her hand spread out on the wall. "How did I find out my earth survived?" she repeated. "Thor. Thor told me."

Once more, the silence stretches between them. She can actually hear Jack lick his lips behind her just before he asks, "Did you ever make it back? Back to your earth?" he clarifies unnecessarily.

She closes her eyes, bites her tongue so hard she thinks it might bleed. It wouldn't do anyone any good to tell Jack why she was here, but that didn't mean she wasn't tempted. She'd already given him so many clues. Maybe he already knows anyway.

"Just once," Grace licks her lips, "I just went back once," is her concession, "but by the time I got there…" she flexes her fingers against the wall one last time before squeezing it into a fist and cradling it in her other hand, "it wasn't home anymore anyway."

"I'm sorry," Jack offers softly.

Grace shrugs, eyes still to the wall, "it doesn't matter now." She steels herself and finally turns back around to face Jack. His eyes go to hers immediately, and they're softer than she thought they would be. She takes a breath, "All that's important to me now is the protection of earth, every earth," she states unequivocally.

Jack nods and quickly looks away, as if he were the one with something to hide. "I believe you."

She nods back, relieved by the stay of his judgment. Jack moves towards the door, and she walks to see him out. His hand is on the doorknob when he turns suddenly. "Just one thing," He's in her space and asking before she can take a step back: "You said there was a clone of your counterpart in the universe you've been living in for however long," he gestures vaguely with his hand, a motion, she knows, is meant to disarm, "was there a clone of you in your home universe, too?"

Gasping, Grace can't answer. Her lips open and close but no sound passes through because now she's certain—he knows. He has to.

6.

"So she's untrustworthy, then."

Jack sucks in a breath through his teeth. "I didn't say that, sir."

"You just told me she was lying, Colonel." General Hammond unwinds then re-laces his fingers atop his desk.

"Yes, sir," O'Neill stands in front of the observation window to the conference room, remembering Captain Grace Carter's erratic responses there. "But I think she's trying to protect me, or us rather, from the truth."

"And what might that be?"

Colonel O'Neill shrugs nonchalantly, but then, he's a much better liar than Captain Carter. "I have no idea, but I suspect it's personal."

Hammond's eye is drawn to the room beyond Jack. "You may be right."

Jack nods, hearing the dismissal in the General's tone and starts to leave. He licks his lip and reconsiders. "Sir?" Jack turns back around. "I think you should know the reason that Captain Carter had such a strong reaction to Daniel is because she was married to him. Well not him, obviously, but another Daniel. They were star-crossed lovers. Or maybe universe-crossed lovers would be a better way to put it. Either way, it ended by circumstance rather than choice."

Hammond looks to Jack and down to his never-ending pile of paperwork. He nods. "Keep on it."

"Yes, sir." The Colonel takes his leave and turns to find Major Carter waiting for him outside the door.

7.

"Sir." His name is statement and a talisman to her, both.

"Carter." He nods to her a little stiffly, a little cautiously.

Mentally, Sam Carter tries to loosen her posture, to be as comfortable with Jack O'Neill as Captain Carter was. "I've just got the preliminary tests back from the crystals we got from my counterpart," she says, because more than anything else, she knows how to be useful.

"Good, good," the Colonel nods and pulls his hands up and into his pockets. "That is good isn't it?" he tilts his head and squints.

She smiles at his pointedly clueless expression, and suddenly she feels the tension leach from them both. "Yes, sir, it's very good. They've made incredible strides in her universe in regards to Ancient technology, in particular. In fact, the advances were so extreme that the SGC had three scientists heading the projects until five months ago." She checks the file lying across her arm. "So far, for some reason, I've only run into their initials, but, the scientists signing off on all the projects are SC, GC, and RM. I'm not certain of who GC would be offhand, but SC would be Captain Carter and RM is probably Dr. McKay."

The Colonel shakes his head. "Actually, the Captain goes by Grace Carter."

"Oh," she blinks, "that's odd. That's my middle name."

"Not much of a coincidence, though, when you think about it." He smiles widely at her. She licks her lips and can't help but to smile back.

"No, I guess not." She concedes and the Colonel's smile changes into something more relaxed, more intimate somehow.

Major Carter straightens her back. "Anyway, I'd better get these to General Hammond. He's going to want to finish debriefing Captain Carter as soon as possible to prevent her from experiencing entrophic cascade failure." She steps to the side, no closer to the Colonel but no farther away, either, so that he can move away from the doorway without touching her.

Colonel O'Neill nods and allows her the space. "Right." He steps away but abruptly stalls. "Speaking of the debriefing, I recommended to the General that we don't wait for Teal'c to get back from the planet before we begin. We're on too tight a schedule, and he'll get back before she heads out anyway." He lifts his shoulder in a too-casual shrug.

Carter wrinkles her brow. "That sounds fine, sir." She nods at him. She can still feel the confusion shaping her face while she watches the Colonel turn and walk away. She shakes her head at the oddity, but then shifts her feet to knock on Hammond's door. She enters at his acknowledgement. She pushes the Colonel's odd behavior to the back burner for the moment, letting the thought simmer while she speaks to the General.

8.

Four hours after Jack leaves, there's another knock on Captain Carter's door. She gets up to answer it, unsure if she can handle any more interrogating. This time, when the knob turns, it's her own face on the other side.

"Hi." Wide eyes and a nervous smile greet the Captain. "It's about dinnertime. I was wondering if you wanted to catch a bite in the commissary with me? Maybe we could talk about the data you embedded on the crystals?"

Grace licks her lips, clears her throat. "Um, sure." She exits the room, shutting the door behind her. She walks with Major Carter down the hall. It isn't her Sam, the woman who'd been a sister to her for four years, whom Grace'd had to leave behind just as she had to leave her husband and her team. In a way, though, Captain Carter feels a greater responsibility to this stranger with her face.

Their silence as they trod down the hall is only interrupted by the shuffle and scrap of four pairs of shoes as the two Carters and two SFs find their way to the commissary.

Grace's guards fall back to a position at the door at Sam's orders when the group reaches the cafeteria.

"So this is kind of awkward, huh?" Major Carter speaks as they wait in line.

Grace Carter smiles at her. "You wouldn't think it would be, would you?"

"Nope. Well, or maybe, yes." Sam's head tilts to the side. "I mean who else can know me as well as you can? Who could understand my dreams and desires better than my alternate?"

"Right." Captain Carter says after a moment. "I mean, you're right. Except for, I think there are differences between us." She touches the nape of her neck and gestures to Major Carter's. "The hair." She looks to the other woman's insignia. "The rank."

They stop at the back of the line, their identical appearances gathering attention. "Different names." Major Carter adds to their list as they near the first food choices.

Captain Carter pauses, very carefully not looking at Sam. "What did the Colonel tell you?" She tries not to sound accusing, but she never thought Jack would speak so carelessly.

Sam shrugs, shifts through the silverware, and picks up a tray. "That you said to call you 'Grace.'"

She exhales and quickly smiles. "I did say that. You can…you can call me that," she nearly stutters.

Major Carter smiles at her, and they go through the rest of the line in silence, each one noting, but not pointing out their identical meal choices, right down to the matching cups of blue jello.

"So what else did Jack tell you?" Grace asks as they unconsciously move to the same sections of the room to sit.

"Colonel O'Neill," Major Carter emphasizes the title very slightly, and the way she says his rank is as possessive as any endearment, "wouldn't tell me anything about a private conversation."

Grace nods, takes a bite, and finishes chewing before speaking again. "So he didn't tell you that I've lived in different universes than my universe of origin for the past six years?"

Sam halts her knife where she'd been buttering her roll. "Are you serious?"

Grace nods again, lifts her eyebrows. "Yeah."

"Wow!" Sam leans back and sets down her bread. "That's—" she shakes her head, lips trying to form words. "Holy Hannah that's incredible."

"Yeah." Grace Carter smiles to watch the Major. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's a mirror to the reaction her Sister Sam had to the news when Grace had come to live in her reality fifteen months after she'd first left home.

"So you've been constantly traveling that whole time?" Sam asks.

Grace looks away. "Uh, no, actually, umm… I lived in one reality for four years. Entropy wasn't a problem at first, and then…I had to leave my home, my husband," she pauses just to breathe, "pretty abruptly."

Sam nods, and Grace can feel the other woman's eyes watching her, studying. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Grace drops her spoon. The baby carrots tumbling from a place near her lips down to the tray and the surrounding table, thumping all around while the flatware lands with a loud _clink!_ Both women look at the mess for a moment, until Grace is spurred into action, gathering the carrots with her napkin. Sam helps, quickening the clean up. "It's not your fault." Grace says before Sam can apologize again. "I would never blame you. How could I? You never would have…. I have to go."

Sam stands as Grace leaves, crushing the soggy napkin and the carrots within. The other woman rushes away, hurriedly disposing of her tray and her barely eaten dinner, and leaving Sam with the uneasy feeling that they were talking about two totally different things.

9.

Jack takes the same seat he had yesterday morning. Teal'c's missing beside him and Fraiser's gone, but General Hammond is at the head of the table once again, and Carter and Daniel are across the way, both with uneasy expressions on their faces as the four of them wait for Captain Grace Carter. The SF leads her in again, and Daniel keeps an eye on Grace as she circles around him to sit by Jack.

"Good Morning, Captain Carter." Hammond says.

"Good Morning, sir." She nods back, then gives equally brief greetings to Carter and Daniel. Jack himself just gets a smile, but it's warmer and more comfortable than the other attempts at salutations.

He smiles back. "Morning, Grace."

"Grace?" Daniel raises his eyebrows. Trying and miserably failing at low-key.

Major Carter speaks. "It's my middle name. Well, our," gestures between her and Captain Carter, "Our middle name, I suppose."

Grace nods in acknowledgement and looks reluctantly to Daniel. "I must apologize for my behavior yesterday, Dr. Jackson. I was overwrought due to personal circumstances, but that does not excuse my rudeness. Please call me Grace."

"Thank you, Grace." Daniel twists his head and squints his eyes at her. "I'm sorry if I contributed to any of those circumstances. I'd be pleased if you called me Daniel."

Under the table, Grace grabs Jack's leg—a little uncomfortably on the high side, especially with Carter across the way. Jack resists the urge to lower his hand to hers right away, trying not to call attention to it.

"Thank you, Daniel." Grace smiles, one of Carter's stiff smiles, and Jack's hand goes under the table after Grace's, which is likely blocking the flow of his femoral artery with her grip. Jack leans on his left hand on the table, while he shifts his right arm to catch her hand—hoping, once he does, that it's not obvious that Grace is strangling his fingers black at the end of it.

"Is there anything you wish to ask me about the information I gathered for you on the crystals?" Grace tries to lead the conversation, but Hammond halts her.

"We would in a moment, Captain. However, I would appreciate it if you would consent to answering a few personal questions." Hammond asks rather more politically than Jack would have had he been in George's shoes.

Grace's hand loosens on Jack's suddenly, causing him to grope for her digits to keep his grip. "Ask me," she demands and looks directly at Daniel.

"Why do you hate me?" Daniel asks before the General can say anything.

"I don't hate you." Grace looks up and away from Daniel.

"You can't even look at me," Daniel challenges the veracity of her claim.

"Daniel Jackson is the love of my life," she states baldly, and the words coming from lips that look exactly like Carter's cause Jack to unconsciously tighten his grip on Grace's fingers in something like punishment. Jack eases off when he notices her other hand grasp the edge of the table in pain. "My Daniel and I were from different realities. We were married for two years. We thought there would be more time before the entropy began, maybe even a lifetime. I look at you and I see…all of that."

Jack soothes his thumb across Grace's fingers as he watches Carter's face, the slight caress as much a hope as an apology.

"Ask me something else," Grace encourages.

"What happened to your home reality?" This time it's Carter who rushes in before Hammond can speak. She must be aching to know the answer if she's precipitating the General's questions.

"For years I thought it had been destroyed by a black hole. I only found out recently that it wasn't true."

"So what did happen?" Jack reiterates Carter's question.

"An Asgard took me for experimentation, leaving a clone in my place. He put me in a virtual reality unit, and 'displaced' me when I found the portal to the first alternate universe."

"So you kept jumping from reality to reality until you found the one with your Daniel?" Jack summarizes, trying to push the story along.

"Essentially."

"How did you find out the earth of your home reality hadn't been destroyed? How did you get home?" Carter probes.

"Thor on both counts. In fact there were two Thors, one from my home reality and one from my original reality. I wonder now how long he knew before he told me, before he had to tell me. Asgard law bequeaths special rights to an original entity and its earlier clones over later clones. The closer a clone is to the original, the more right it has to life. Thor asked me to give up my rights as prime to my clone in my original reality."

Daniel leans forward. "Did you?"

"Yes." She tilts her head and smiles. "I had to do a little song and dance, say something like, 'Major Samantha Carter, I bequeath to you any and all rights as prime of this reality, and I take position of first clone in this reality, but not in any others.'" Grace shrugs. "I had to do it in a public place, with witnesses, that sort of thing."

And Jack's mouth goes suddenly, perfectly dry as the last piece of the puzzle abruptly and irrevocably clicks into place.

"Wow," Carter blinks, draws her neck inward. "How did she react?"

Grace smiles, chuffs, finally she laughs.

And in Jack's head, a litany begins: _oh God oh God please no._

"Funny you should ask that." Grace Carter licks her lips, and Jack squeezes and squeezes and squeezes her hand.

_Please, please, please _don't, he thinks, even as a part of him recognizes the lengths she's gone to so it remains a secret.

"She said, 'Thank you,' and I said 'You're welcome,'" Grace concluded, "and we simply resumed our meeting because no one outside of SG-1 ever knew that their Sam Carter had been switched with a clone. I was glad to do it, and I wasn't sorry at all when it was over."

"But you didn't have a home to go to after that." Carter's empathy makes him cringe.

Grace shakes her head, subtly looks around the conference room. "It wasn't home."

"So what's next for you?" Jack squeezes her hand again under the table, more gently this time, but the movement feels harsh to the rawness of his hand and the rest of him.

She shrugs, keeping hold of his hand. "Just the same thing I did before, travel from universe to universe and help out where I can."

"So for the rest of your life that's all you plan to do? Hop from reality to reality and just stay one step ahead of your whole body being ripped apart by forces of entropy?"

"Dr. Jackson!" Hammond scolds, scooting closer to the table. "I think that's all we need to ask," he directs to Grace. "Perhaps we should move on to discuss the information in the crystals?"

"Certainly, sir." Captain Carter answers agreeably, her manner light, but her hand still fixed between Jack's palm and his thigh.

He listens to their Q&A halfheartedly until Teal'c dials back in, the declaration of his IDC startling Grace beside him. She gives him one last squeeze, a pleading one before she lets go. "Why don't I go take care of that so you can stay here, sir?" Jack says to the General.

"Thank you, Colonel." Hammond nods his dismissal, and Jack has to pace himself so not to run to find Teal'c.

"O'Neill." Teal'c greets him when he catches up to the Jaffa in the armory that SG-1 most frequently uses.

Jack puts a finger to his lips and checks the other aisles. He comes back to Teal'c when he's sure there's no one else there. "Report."

"There was a campsite eight kilometers northeast from the Stargate overlooking the greater valley. The camp was established in accordance with Major Carter's usual habits."

Jack nods before Teal'c goes into more detail on the setting of the camp. "For how long?"

"O'Neill?"

"How long did she stay there?"

Teal'c tilts his head. "At least a eight days," he adds before O'Neill can ask, "continuously."

Jack shuts his eyes, rubs two fingers on either side of his head. "OK," he acknowledges, knowing how damning the evidence is, knowing that no one can ever find out that Grace fits right into this universe. Jack looks back to Teal'c. "I need you to do something for me."

Teal'c nods before Jack can ask.

"I need you to forget that you ever saw that camp. There was no evidence whatsoever that she didn't dial us up as soon as she arrived." At Teal'c's worried and gathered brow, Jack elaborates. "I don't want you to do this because of her. I want you to do it because of Carter. Our Carter," he quickly corrects. "No one can ever know, Teal'c, especially not Carter and Daniel."

Teal'c bows his agreement.

"Thank you, T," Jack whispers, and they both leave the small room with its secret behind. Now there's just the matter of escorting Captain Carter off-world. Jack heads back to the briefing to get it finished as quickly as possible.

10.

The weather on Cimmeria is as sunny as it had been two days ago. Jack thinks somehow that it shouldn't be. It should be cold and rainy or hot and muggy—overcast at the very least, not this warm sun and clear skies that a Disney cartoon would kill to exploit. He almost expects Bambi to come prancing out of the forest it's so damn picturesque.

"Sir?" Carter calls his attention. "We're ready to dial back to earth now. Grace should really get to the mirror if she wants to escape before entropic cascade failure begins."

"Right," Jack nods. "Cascading, bad. Go ahead and dial it up. Go through once the signal's confirmed," he instructs.

For a moment, it almost looks like Carter will dismiss the order, then she just adjusts her P-90 and marches toward the DHD like a good soldier. Jack bides his time near Grace, waiting for the IDC to go through.

The Stargate explodes into life, and Carter walks right up to the event horizon with her GDO. "We're good to go, sir," she hollers back, and he waves her through. She follows the order immediately, as does Teal'c.

"Jack?" Daniel calls once he reaches the top stair of the platform.

"Keep the door open for me, will you?" Jack asks.

Daniel nods to both the request and to bid goodbye to Grace. Then he steps through.

Jack turns to face Captain Carter at the base of the platform when the others are gone. He takes her hand in his. "Thank you. Thank you for not telling her."

"I'm sorry that _you_ know." He watches as the words pass through Carter's lips—Carter's lips but Grace's words. "I shouldn't have involved you. I just never imagined how hard it would really be." Her smile is soft, sad as her voice.

"You imagined for over a week, didn't you?" Jack asks. "On a hill with a view, eight klicks from here?"

"Does Teal'c know, then?"

"No," Jack shakes his head. "He only knows you were camped out for at least a week before you went to the SGC, and he's not going to tell anybody."

Grace wraps her arms around his shoulders, pulls him to her. "Thank you, Jack."

He holds her against him. It's so close. She's so damn near to being Carter. If he closes his eyes, forgets the extra hair… "I love you," he tells the wrong woman, his words a bare whisper.

"I love you, too," she whispers in his ear.

He pulls his head away, aligns their lips. She tastes like coffee and strawberry chapstick. She opens her mouth to him, and he takes it, hoping he shaved close enough this morning so he won't mar her beautiful face. "I'm sorry," he whispers into her mouth, an apology for not stopping, for not wanting to stop. "I love you," he says again, not lifting his lips from hers.

"I'm not. I'm not sorry," she whispers back when he releases her lips. "I love you, too, Jack." She guides his fingers to her left hand, right to her ring finger and the small indentation that still marks her skin. "If it weren't Daniel, it'd have been you," she declares.

Jack lets her go completely then, cursing himself three kinds an idiot.

"No, Jack, listen to me," she yanks on his arm and doesn't let him get away. "There were two of us, two Carters, on my world—the world I left, Jack. _I_ married Daniel, and _she_ married you. I'm a prime, and she's a clone. Your Carter's a clone," Jack starts when Grace says it aloud for the first time. She eases him close with a hand on his face. "You do the math, Jack. I know she loves you, too," Grace whispers.

This time, Grace leans in first to offer one last peck to Jack's lips. "If you ever need anything…" Jack says.

"Thank you. And I'll probably come back here every once in a while. I'll keep the same campsite near the largest boulder if you ever want to get in touch. It'll be a while before I respond, but I'll never refuse you."

"I guess this is goodbye." He reaches out his hand.

She takes it without hesitation. "Goodbye, Jack."

"Goodbye, Grace. Have a safe journey." He holds her hand and her eye for just another moment, and then he turns and walks away.

THE END


End file.
